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What to do when you don't
know what to do:
Call Accent on Computers! 203-625-7575.
October 12, 2007
Inspect Your Gadget
Dear Larry,
I have a new Windows Vista computer that shows the weather for Redmond, WA on
the right-hand side of the screen. Can I get it to show the Old Greenwich
weather instead?
P. R.
Dear P. R.,
What you’re referring to is a weather gadget that’s sitting on your Windows
Sidebar, a new feature of Windows Vista. For those of you who are running Vista
but don’t have the Sidebar displayed, here’s how to turn it on: Click the Start
button (i.e., the pearl) in the bottom left corner of the desktop, type SIDE,
then click the Windows Sidebar icon at the top of the Start Menu.
Presumably you’ll want the sidebar to show up automatically every time your
computer starts up. To do this, right-click a blank portion of the Sidebar
(where your Windows desktop is peeking through), then click Properties. Check
the box at the top that reads Start Sidebar When Windows Starts, then click OK.
Your current Sidebar may have one or two gadgets on it, but it’s easy to add
more. Click the plus (+) sign at the top of the Sidebar to call up the gallery.
If you’d like to add one of these gadgets, simply click and drag one to a
position of your choice on the Sidebar. If you want to find more gadgets to
choose from, click the Get More Gadgets Online link in the bottom right corner
of the gadget window (you’ll need an Internet connection to do this). Next,
click the See All Gadgets button; at last count, there were over 1,400 to choose
from. To make your life a little easier, type a term like WEATHER in the Search
box at the top of the screen, then press Enter to filter the list down to
weather-related gadgets. Just above the top right gadget, click See All for
Windows Vista. Then go crazy and click a gadget to your liking.
If you add too many gadgets, they’ll run off the edge. Simply click the Right
and Left arrows at the top of the Sidebar to page through your gadgets. Note
that gadgets don’t necessarily need to reside on the Sidebar. If you wish, you
can drag them off the Sidebar and onto the desktop: Hover over the gadget you
want to move, then click and drag the little icon that looks like an 8-button
remote to the right of the gadget and drop the gadget anywhere on your Windows
desktop (you can also do this to rearrange the order of your gadgets).
So how do you modify the options associated with a gadget? Hover over the gadget
in question, and if it can be modified, a little wrench icon will appear to the
right of the gadget. You can either click the wrench or, if you wish,
right-click the gadget, then click Options. In your case, you’ll want to type
OLD GREENWICH, CT in the Location box and press Enter. Then click OK to update
the gadget’s display.
Hey look, it’s sunny and 81 degrees!
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
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